Mitten Crate Subscription Box Review + Coupon – January 2017

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Mitten Crate is a monthly subscription box that delivers a carefully curated selection of delicious food, crafted in small batches by independent food producers from around the great state of Michigan. Every month you’ll receive 5-6 local artisan foods to sample and enjoy.

This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

For every Mitten Crate purchased, they donate to Gleaners Food Bank in Southeastern Michigan.

Mitten Crate also includes a card with information about all the brands and artisans they feature in that month’s box. Being from Michigan myself, it’s so much fun to find out about these businesses that are right near me!

This coffee roast is inspired by the city of Flint, MI – specifically by “the generations of men and women who have always risen early, worked hard, and stayed ‘till the job was done.” It’s a dark roast with nutty notes, dark chocolate notes, and apple notes. These are whole beans so I haven’t ground and brewed them yet, but I’m very excited to! It smells amazing.

Eeeek! I am not a spicy food person, though this is labeled as a milder sauce with 1,000-2,000 scoville units (which is the way to measure how spicy something is). The only ingredients are fire-roasted Poblano, apple cider vinegar, sea salt, distilled water, and olive oil. I tried this and honestly, it’s hot but I can handle it! It takes a second for the heat to kick in, but – my favorite part – it also goes away quickly.

I used this for dinner last night to add some complexity and heat to a sauce. I also want to try to use it to imitate a tomato salad that a Mexican chef I used to work with would make from tomato scraps – I think it had tomato slices, garlic power, poblano, salt, and pepper. I’ll have to taste test to recreate!

I tried a different flavor of these this summer from Mitten Crate, and remember being very surprised with how much I liked them. I like this flavor, too! The kale is slightly crispy and has a ton of flavor.

The only complaint I have is that this container seems to be only 2/3 full. I know it’s a sample container anyway, so I can’t confirm whether or not it actually weighed in at 0.25 oz, but I feel like I remember the last flavor I tried being a fuller container.

This soda is made with rhubarb juice and apple cider vinegar (and sugar). There’s supposed to be lots of benefits to drinking apple cider vinegar every day, and this is supposed to make it more fun/enjoyable. It’s a great concept, but it’s just pretty bitter. Maybe someone who drinks beer would enjoy it more. Plus, they supply a few cocktail recipes on their website, which I can see this being good for, too.

Verdict: This January wasn’t my favorite Mitten Crate, but I enjoyed just about everything but the soda. The value this month adds up to only about $20, which I’m not happy with for a $35 box.I love Mitten Crate and I’ve found some amazing food through them in the past but recently their value hasn’t been near breaking even with the cost of the box. I know curation/discovery plays a role in some of the value, but not enough to make up the difference here for me. I really hope they improve this for next and future months.

Haley Faye first discovered Beauty Army and Birchbox in 2012 and instantly fell hard and fast for the world of subscription boxes. Over the years of writing for MSA she has found many subscriptions to fuel her addiction, but her favorites include fashion, geeky, beauty, and mom/baby boxes to share with her son.

All views in this review are the opinion of the author. My Subscription Addiction will never accept payment in exchange for a review, but will accept a box at no cost to provide honest opinions on the box. This post may contain affiliate/referral links. Read the complete My Subscription Addiction disclosure.

1 Comment

Judy
January 26, 2017 at 11:07 am

The American Harvest snack mix is $8.99 for 3.5 oz on Amazon so I think this gives the box a higher value. I would like to order the snack mix but it’s not amazon prime and they add $5.51 for shipping which is more than I want to spend. I will look for it locally.